This cover destined to London was written on May 6, and mailed out of Beirut on 10 May 1845 (fig 1), about six month before the opening of the French post office in Beirut on November 16 and before the shipping route service by the French Paquebots de la Mediterrannee (*) to that same city. Despite the authorization by the French since 1837 to allow the British Post have their mail transported from Alexandria to England overland through Marseilles, the cover in this case used instead the direct route to England (i.e. through Gibraltar).